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'Lost opportunities' to help four-year-old Sean Turner

Four-year-old Sean Turner died six weeks after heart surgery. Photo: Family handout

There were "lost opportunities" at Bristol Royal Children's Hospital to help a four-year-old boy who died after heart surgery, an inquest has ruled.

But to his parents' anger, the coroner said the hospital did not fail Sean Turner with its basic care.

Steve, 47, and Yolanda Turner, 45, said they found some of the evidence they heard during the 10-day inquest into the death of their son Sean "shocking and unacceptable".

They told the hearing how they begged doctors and nurses on Ward 32 of Bristol Children's Hospital to help their desperately ill son.

The parents of Sean Turner accused doctors of moving him out of intensive care too soon. Credit: Family handout

Mr and Mrs Turner, from Warminster, gave harrowing accounts of their son's care and treatment during a six-week stay at the hospital, which is regarded as a centre of excellence, saying Sean was so desperate for a glass of water that he resorted to sucking the moisture from tissues used to cool his forehead.

Mr and Mrs Turner accused doctors of transferring their son to Ward 32 from intensive care too soon and said they missed the signs of his worsening condition - with rising blood pressure, vomiting and fluid loss from his chest.

Sean died in March 2012 from a brain haemorrhage after previously suffering a cardiac arrest - six weeks after he underwent vital corrective heart surgery.